2004 Professor Keller and David Whelan used the 5 meter Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory

The observatory is in the mountains near San Diego, California.
Photographs and Captions by Luke Keller
9/22/04

 

We were awarded 3 nights, with collaborators at Cornell University, to use the 5 meter telescope with its adaptive optics and infrared camera. We recorded images and spectra of iinfrared light from several very young stars. We were looking for (and found!) evidence that some of the stars have gas and dust orbiting in a disk. The disk may be material that is forming planets.

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David Whelan (right) and Marc Berthoud (left) try to stay up late to get on a night schedule prior to our first night. David Whelan and Luke Keller looking tired, but happy to be at the telescope. Main entrance to the dome of the Hale Telescope.
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The Hale 5m telescope. The primary mirror (5m in diameter) is in the sttructure at the bottom of the picture. The secondary mirror is at the top. The telescope is about 12 meters long. The Hale dome from a distance. David Whelan on the way to work.
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A view of the telescope from the "catwalk" one story above the observing floor. Side view of the telescope with part of the huge steel mount (large tube in the foreground), which contains a stairway for access to part of the telescope! David Whelan (left) and Marc Berthoud. Marc is a graduate student at Cornell University who is working with us on this project.